I found it pretty difficult to find any articles that just gave you the facts when it comes to performance tuning and configuring SQL Server 2005. I have a Microsoft Technology Technology Specialist in SQL Server 2005 but try to read as many tips and technique articles on SQL Server 2005 as I can.
Then I came across these two great articles SQL Server clustering best practices and
Active/Active clusters in SQL Server by Hilary Cotter with Geoff Hiten. These articles provide information such as:
- Clustering basics
- Clustering topologies
- Clustering dependencies
- Clustering best practices
- Distinct cluster configurations
- Pre-installation
- Cluster installation
- Post-installation
- Minimize fail overtime
- Performance considerations
One comment that resonates with my experience is
Today, clustering on SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 is a highly reliable technology, but it still has many dependencies that prevent it from meeting your high-availability goals. Foremost among these dependencies is a staff that is
trained and knowledgeable.
SQL Server clusters can be configured in four distinct configurations:
- Single instance – formerly called Active/Passive
- Multi-instance – formerly called Active/Active
- N+1 – multiple instance clusters, where multiple nodes all share the same failover node
- N+M – multiple instance clusters where multiple nodes all share the same failover nodes
